Cape Town Masters Chess Championship 2024

Cape Town, 10 January 2024

IM Karsten wins Masters Section

The top seed, 15 year-old, International Master Jan Karsten (Cape Town Chess Club), won the 2024 Cape Town Masters Chess Championship hosted by Chess Western Province!! The event took place from 3 to 7 January 2024 at the Western Province Bridge Club in Sea Point.

The championship saw many of South Africa’s top players battle it out over 9 grueling rounds. IM Karsten finished unbeaten on 8 out of 9 games drawing against second place winner, CM Khanya Mazibuko who was the early front-runner and had IM Karsten on the ropes in their 6th round game. Third place was won by IM Watu Kobese (Elsies River Chess Club) finishing tied on 6 points along with 5 other players!!

*Winners of the Masters Section – from left: Burton van Staaden, IM Watu Kobese (3rd), IM Jan Karsten (1st) and CM Khanya Mazibuko (2nd)*

Masters Section full results per Chess-Results: https://chess-results.com/tnr863793.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9&flag=30

Rising Star claims Advanced Section

The Advanced section was won by the 21st seed, 12 year-old Chase Salimu (African Chess Lounge) who was unbeaten over 7 rounds and winning on tiebreak ahead of Thabang Mankga from Bojanala Chess Federation, both finishing of 5.5 out of 7 rounds. Tane Ressel claimed 3rd place on tiebreak ahead of 4 other players finishing on 5 points.

*Winners of the Advanced Section – from left: Burton van Staaden, Tane Ressel (3rd), Chase Salimu (1st) and Thabang Mankga (2nd)*

Advanced Section full results per Chess Results: https://chess-results.com/tnr863794.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=7&flag=30

The tournament saw some phenomenal performances and the best rating gains were achieved by Brooklyn Waguta (Kraaifontein Chess Club) and Chase Salimu (African Chess Lounge) in the Masters and Advanced sections respectively with Brooklyn gaining 130,8 rating points and Chase gaining 136,8 rating points.

Raising the standard of chess broadcasting in South Africa

This year was the second edition of the Cape Town Masters Chess Championship following the inaugural tournament in 2023 which was won by GM Adham Fawzy from Egypt. The current tournament boasted a prize fund of R 40,000 for the Masters Section and R10,000 for the Advanced section.

Despite some technical challenges on day one, the Cape Town Masters raised the standard of chess broadcasting in South Africa when WIM Jesse February decided to launch her new passion project to broadcast and showcase South African chess events by live streaming daily and conducting wonderful interviews with many of the players between rounds. With a Twitch following of 6.8k users and 2.55K users on Youtube, the event received great exposure for the organisers and sponsors.

The tournament received further exposure via Eddie Bhila‘s daily tournament reports posted on his Chess and Wine Youtube channel. In addition, Flashlight Pictures (Thando Hlakula) captured all the action and assisted with the production of the player interviews.

The contributions of these content creators has set the standard for chess broadcasting in South Africa. The importance of professional broadcasting cannot be underestimated in the context of chess in South Africa where securing consistent sponsorship is often challenging. These broadcasts give exceptional exposure to these sponsors and showcases the best of chess in South Africa.

Follow and support these amazing content creators on their various social media accounts and help promote chess in South Africa:

WIM Jesse February Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/jesse_feb
WIM Jesse February Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Jesse_Feb
Chess and Wine Youtube (presented by Eddie Bhila): https://www.youtube.com/@chessandwineSA

Congratulations to tournament director and Chess Western Province president, Burton van Staaden and his team on hosting a most successful chess championship. We look forward to seeing how this event grows and becomes one of the most prestigious chess events in South Africa.

Follow the Chess Western Province Facebook page for more tournament interviews and latest chess events happening in Cape Town.

Thank you to all the sponsors of this event: